Farmers in Louisiana are grateful Friday after much-needed funding was released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture amid an ongoing federal government shutdown.
Brooke Rollins, the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, was in Amite Friday and announced that processed payments for farmers and paid employees are currently underway.
Read MoreOn Sunday, President Trump made waves with a proposal for dealing with high U.S. beef prices. “We would buy some beef from Argentina,” he said from Air Force One during a flight from Florida to Washington, D.C., according to the Associated Press. “If we do that, that will bring our beef prices down.”
Read MoreThe Agriculture Department will reopen about 2,100 county offices all across the country Thursday despite the ongoing government shutdown to help farmers and ranchers get access to $3 billion of aid from existing programs.
Read MoreAgriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced Tuesday night that Farm Service Agency offices would reopen Thursday to perform core operations. Those offices have been closed since Oct. 1 due to the government shutdown.
Read MoreToday, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins, Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and Small Business Administrator Kelly Loeffler announced a suite of actions to strengthen the American beef industry, reinforcing and prioritizing the American rancher’s critical role in the national security of the United States. Since 2017, the United States has lost over 17% of family farms, more than 100,000 operations over the last decade. The national herd is at a 75-year low while consumer demand for beef has grown 9% over the past decade. Because increasing the size of the domestic herd takes time, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is investing now to make these markets less volatile for ranchers over the long term and more affordable for consumers.
Read MoreU.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins appeared Tuesday evening on NewsNation and said, “There is a really big announcement coming tomorrow on what we’re going to do to restore and revitalize our beef herd in America, which ultimately will bring the prices down.”
Read MoreRural broadband growth is reshaping how farms across the South connect and compete. A new USDA survey released in August 2025 shows sharp increases in online input purchases and marketing activity, even as some producers scale back precision agriculture tools amid tighter margins.
Read MoreThe United States Department of Agriculture and the Food Safety Inspection Service have announced a recall of a popular breakfast item that is currently included as part of the National School Lunch and Breakfast Programs. These items have been sold and served nationwide, including in schools in Louisiana.
As the federal government shutdown continues, farmers across the country are facing mounting financial strain due to their inability to access marketing loans — a critical cash flow tool during harvest season.
Read MoreWhile Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins has been through government shutdowns before, she said the current one “feels different.”
Read MoreThe U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) has awarded the La. Department of Agriculture and Forestry (LDAF) over $386,000 in Fiscal Year 2025 Specialty Crop Block Grant Program (SCBGP) funding. This USDA grant will enable the LDAF to fund projects that enhance the competitiveness of specialty crops in the state and support specialty crop growers through marketing, education, and research initiatives. Specialty crops include “fruits, vegetables, tree nuts, dried fruits, horticulture and nursery crops, including floriculture,” as defined by the USDA.
Read MoreNorth Louisiana fields are busy with harvest and fall planting decisions, yet a possible federal shutdown would tangle that work with red tape and uncertainty. The issue is not politics. It is timing.
Farmers live by seasons and cash flow. When federal services pause, everyday decisions about credit, insurance, and marketing get harder across Caddo, Bossier, DeSoto, and the Delta parishes.
Read MoreCongressman Rick Crawford (AR-01) and Congresswoman Julia Letlow (LA-05) introduced the Bridge the Gap for Rural Communities Act (H.R. 5710). This legislation helps farmers bridge the safety net gap until the updated farm provisions in the Working Families Tax Cut Act take full effect next year. The legislation suspends the payment limitation for the Price Loss Coverage (PLC) program and the Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC) program for the 2025 crop year and provides farmers the option to elect by December 1 if they want a 50% partial payment by the end of the year instead of waiting until October 2026.
Read MoreLouisiana Congressman Clay Higgins and Gov. Jeff Landry are asking President Trump and USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins to add New Orleans to the agency's list of five new regional hubs.
Rollins and Trump announced in July that they would decentralize the U.S. Department of Agriculture by dramatically shrinking its Capitol work force in Washington and creating five regional hubs.
Read MoreThe U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) has awarded the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry (LDAF) over $386,000 in Fiscal Year 2025 Specialty Crop Block Grant Program (SCBGP) funding.
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